All posts by Stuart Owens
Below are all of Stuart Owens's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.My reason for thinking that Machynlleth and Ynys Pennal were relays of Long Mountain rather than Blaenplwyf is that they are shown in the same colour as Blaenplwyf and its relays on the Digital UK Transmitter Networks page shown here:
http://www.digitaluk.co.u….jpg
Had they got that map a bit more correct, Machynlleth and Ynys Pennal would be shown in pink, the same colour as Long Mountain and all its other relays, not black, the colour of Blaenplwyf and its 7 relays.
The same goes for Penrhyn-Coch and Trefilan that I had missed out which should also be pink on the map, not black. (LL115FQ)
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I was wondering, comparing the ITV regions on this website to the ITV regions you can add and view through the 'Other Channels' facility and then comparing that to the actual terrestrial transmitters, how do they all match up?
For example, there is an Anglia W(west), Anglia E(east) and an Anglia S(south) available through Sky.
Yet this website says that Tacolneston and Sudbury are Anglia East and Sandy Heath is Anglia West.
Is this correct?
Because I would look at the Anglia transmitter location maps and see that Sudbury should show as being Anglia South.
Likewise, there are many transmitters in the Meridian Region. On Sky there is 4 regions, South, East, South-East and North.
But there are 10 main transmitters for Meridian. These show as Oxford (Meridian N), Hannington (N), Whitehawk Hill (Southampton, presumably Meridian S), Bluebell Hill (Maidstone), Rowridge (Southampton), Dover (Maidstone), Heathfield (Maidstone), Midhurst (Southampton), Hastings (says ITV Hastings though presumably one of the aforementioned Meridian regions) and Tunbridge Wells (says ITV Tunbridge Wells though presumably one of the aforementioned Meridian regions).
So which (main) transmitters in the Meridian region transmit Meridian North, Meridian South, Meridian East and Meridian South-East?
Dover, Bluebell Hill and Heathfield for example shows as Meridian Maidstone so with Hastings being 'a stone's throw away' to Heathfield's Hollington Park relay, with Hastings showing as ITV Hastings, I'm wondering if it is actually Meridian Maidstone? Looking again at the transmitter map, it's awkward to tell which transmitters form part of the Meridian East region and which transmitters form part of the Meridian South-East region. I don't know where the 'dividing line' is between the South and South-East Meridian regions.
I'm not sure if Bluebell Hill and Tunbridge Wells would be classified as Meridian East and Heathfield, Hastings and Dover as Meridian South-East.
But then this website says that Bluebell Hill, Dover and Heathfield are all Meridian Maidstone.
Even the Central region on Sky shows as having 4 regions, W, E, S and SW. I know that the Central South region shown on Sky is now actually Meridian North for Oxford (Sky need to update this) so you would think that Ridge Hill is Central SW but this website says Ridge Hill is Central W.
So it would be nice and easier if the ITV regions shown on this website carried the same compass suffix e.g. North, West, South-East etc... such as Meridian South-East rather than the town name i.e. Maidstone. At least they would have the same names they do both on this website and through Sky.
I look forward to reading how this all translates geographically between terrestrial and satellite platforms.
Thanks.
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john phillips: I'm noticing also how the signal for D3&4 (Ch.22) sometimes seems quite poor. Tonight it was 54 Strength 0 Quality whereas BBCA (Ch.28) was around both 90 Strength and Quality.
I can only presume like yourself it's because of D3&4 from The Wrekin (Ch. 23) having quite a high signal strength and quality but also down to the weather pulling in The Wrekin signal stronger and blocking out nearby signals so 22 and 23 being consecutive channels, and 23 despite being further away but at a much higher transmission power practically blocks out 22 that is transmitted from less than a mile away from where I live. 28 from Wrexham-Rhos appears to be unaffected so presume it's because there's no high-powered transmitters pumping anything out on 27 or 29.
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Norfolk sees the end of analogue TV as high power digital start
Saturday 3 December 2011 9:12PM
Wrexham
Saturday 3 December 2011 9:12PM
Wrexham
I was wondering, comparing the ITV regions on this website to the ITV regions you can add and view through the 'Other Channels' facility and then comparing that to the actual terrestrial transmitters, how do they all match up?
For example, there is an Anglia W(west), Anglia E(east) and an Anglia S(south) available through Sky.
Yet this website says that Tacolneston and Sudbury are Anglia East and Sandy Heath is Anglia West.
Is this correct?
Because I would look at the Anglia transmitter location maps and see that Sudbury should show as being Anglia South.
Likewise, there are many transmitters in the Meridian Region. On Sky there is 4 regions, South, East, South-East and North.
But there are 10 main transmitters for Meridian. These show as Oxford (Meridian N), Hannington (N), Whitehawk Hill (Southampton, presumably Meridian S), Bluebell Hill (Maidstone), Rowridge (Southampton), Dover (Maidstone), Heathfield (Maidstone), Midhurst (Southampton), Hastings (says ITV Hastings though presumably one of the aforementioned Meridian regions) and Tunbridge Wells (says ITV Tunbridge Wells though presumably one of the aforementioned Meridian regions).
So which (main) transmitters in the Meridian region transmit Meridian North, Meridian South, Meridian East and Meridian South-East?
Dover, Bluebell Hill and Heathfield for example shows as Meridian Maidstone so with Hastings being 'a stone's throw away' to Heathfield's Hollington Park relay, with Hastings showing as ITV Hastings, I'm wondering if it is actually Meridian Maidstone? Looking again at the transmitter map, it's awkward to tell which transmitters form part of the Meridian East region and which transmitters form part of the Meridian South-East region. I don't know where the 'dividing line' is between the South and South-East Meridian regions.
I'm not sure if Bluebell Hill and Tunbridge Wells would be classified as Meridian East and Heathfield, Hastings and Dover as Meridian South-East.
But then this website says that Bluebell Hill, Dover and Heathfield are all Meridian Maidstone.
Even the Central region on Sky shows as having 4 regions, W, E, S and SW. I know that the Central South region shown on Sky is now actually Meridian North for Oxford (Sky need to update this) so you would think that Ridge Hill is Central SW but this website says Ridge Hill is Central W.
So it would be nice and easier if the ITV regions shown on this website carried the same compass suffix e.g. North, West, South-East etc... such as Meridian South-East rather than the town name i.e. Maidstone. At least they would have the same names they do both on this website and through Sky.
I look forward to reading how this all translates geographically between terrestrial and satellite platforms.
Thanks.
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What I don't understand with the DTTV platform is that there is a smile tv2 channels and a smile tv3 channel but no smile tv1 channel.
GOLD as of today only transmits 1100-1400 Mon-Thu/1200-1400 Fri instead of 1800-2300 7 days a week. 14 hours a week on weekday afternoons only instead of 35 hours a week 7 evenings a week. What is the point in that? How many viewers and revenue will they get from that? Probably not much I'm thinking.
Home as of today only transmits 1100-1200 Fridays only. What is the point in only transmitting 1 hour once a week?
There is now a Connect channel and a Connect 1, Connect 2 and Connect 3.
Why not rename Connect as Connect 1. Then have Connect 2, Connect 3 and Connect 4. Presuming of course the board game Connect 4 isn't a Trade Mark(!).
There is a TopUp Anytime 1 and a TopUp Anytime 3. There used to be a TopUp Anytime 2 but that closed which was silly to leave TopUp Anytime 1 & 3 rather than close 3 and leave 1 & 2.
There is now a TopUp Anytime 5 & 6 which is silly.
Why not renumber 3 as 2, 5 as 3 and 6 as 4 so you have TopUp Anytime 1, 2, 3 & 4, not TopUp Anytime 1, 3, 5 & 6.
I'm sure these broadcasters/providers can't count!
This data is provided from this website:
UK DTT Channel List (Freeview/Top Up TV Anytime) (LL115FQ)
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Ferryside (Carmarthenshire, Wales) Freeview Light transmitter
Saturday 17 December 2011 2:29PM
Wrexham
Saturday 17 December 2011 2:29PM
Wrexham
I don't know if anyone has ever asked this, but although Ferryside was the first transmitter to go digital, the fact that it's a relay, I don't understand why it has a 4th multiplex transmitting from it (SDN).
All other relays appear to have 3 or 6 multiplexes so why does this have 4?
Is this just a one-off special as it was the first one to switch so Ferryside viewers just have that extra privilege than other Freeview Lite viewers?
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Hi Dave Lindsay,
As I said in my post above,'it was the first one to switch', but thanks anyway for the BBC news link.
I've noticed in the past how you seem to be able to respond to my posts so soon after posting them.
I was just curious so I hope you don't mind me asking, but how are you able to respond to my posts so soon after posting them?
Are you one of the people who run this website? Therefore do you receive an email every time someone posts something on the site and as to what and where they posted on the site?
I'm interested to know so hope you can explain.
Thanks.
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Now that improvements have been made to the coverage area maps, I can now see how poor the coverage area actually is in North-East Wales, which Moel-Y-Parc is supposed to serve. It appears to have almost the same coverage area as Winter Hill with more coverage in England and barely any coverage in Wales.
Therefore I'm wondering if the radiation patterns and/or powers of either or both masts should be changed to prevent so much of an overlap and for Moel-Y-Parc to transmit less power to Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire and more power to Flintshire, Wrexham, Denbighshire and Conwy?
You would think though a town the size of Wrexham and also with the importance Llangollen has on the world with the International Eisteddfod, that both places should be entitled and therefore able to receive the Main transmitter for North-East Wales.
So I've often thought perhaps Moel-Y-Parc at Postcode CH7 5UU maybe wasn't the best location for the transmitter, maybe somewhere higher up towards, or better still, on the Clwydian Range mountains may have been better or maybe if the mast was made taller or more powerful towards the Welsh counties it's supposed to serve and less powerful towards English counties which it's not supposed to serve.
It will be interesting to hear other people thoughts and take on this.
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Mike Dimmick: Even the analogue coverage shouldn't have had that much overspill across the borders in my opinion.
All I'm saying is if you look at the coverage of the Moel-Y-Parc transmitter, it doesn't appear to serve that many people in Wales in its designated service area. It appears to serve more people in the North West than to Wales itself which is why I'm saying the aerials on the mast should be directed less at the North West and more around the aforementioned counties in Wales.
If it can't be done by increasing the power, then it couuld've been done had the transmitter been built taller or at a higher location above sea level than present.
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Tuesday 22 November 2011 3:31PM
Wrexham
Hi Dave Lindsay.
So what you are saying is that despite the fact that Kilvey Hill transmitters switched on 9th September 2009, Mynydd Emroch was a relay of Carmel that switched on 23rd September 2009 and on that date, Mynydd was handed over to Kilvey Hill? Am I right?
Likewise in that Machynlleth and Ynys Pennal were relays of Blaenplwyf but they were handed over to Long Mountain when they switched on 3rd December 2009 and Blaenplwyf switched on 10th March 2010?
Why are some relays re-grouped from one main to another main transmitter in this way?